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oopsie's review
2.0
This book tells us the story of Hans and Gretel, two singlings that live in Holland. They grew up in a poor house and with an ill father who suffers from a brain injury.
The siblings can only count on themselves and on the support of their mother to go on and to take care of their father.
The story begins when Hans and Gretel decide to take part in the town's skating competition to try and win the famous Silver Skates.
Even tough the book was supposed to develop around the sibling's story in reality a great part of it describes the adventures of another group of boys.
In fact, almost half of this novel tells us about the trip that some of the boys from Hans and Gretel's town decide to take part in. The boys are leaded by Peter, who soon becomes another important character of the story, and they go on a trip that will take them and us on a journey across Holland.
I think that this part of the novel was crearly written with the intention of getting the reading to know more about Holland's history and culture.
While I first enjoyed this description of the country it slowly began to bore me after some time and I couldn't wait to go back to the siblings story.
In fact, I think that the author spent too much time in describing Holland's history and the country's folklore.
This turned the story to be kind boring from me.
Another thing that I didn't like about this book is the fact that Holland and its people are depicted so perfectly and as if they could only do righteous and admirable things. They are never described or shown in a bad light and everyone who seems a little bit selfish is immediately depicted as bad by the author.
I also didn't like the fact that all of the female characters of the novel are characterized only by their beauty, their grace, their kindness and so on...
They are never described to have other abilities or capabilities besides the ones that a classic housewife to-be would have.
Another thing that I absolutely didn't appreciate was the fact that the figure of the wife is always expected to follow her husband's wishes, to respect him and to provide him of everything he may want or desire...
While I understand that this book was written in the 18th century I still can't get myself to support a novel that contributes to diffuse this kind of patriarchal behevior and morals to children.
In the end, though, I have to say that I think this is a children's book mainly written with the intention of getting young people to know more about Holland and its cultures.
While the novel does a good job at that I didn't like the fact that its morals where so old minded (even if considering the period when the book was written).
This was a good read which I enjoyed but I don't know if I would recommend it to anyone unless they would like to get to know about Holland or they are simply looking for a children's book.
The siblings can only count on themselves and on the support of their mother to go on and to take care of their father.
The story begins when Hans and Gretel decide to take part in the town's skating competition to try and win the famous Silver Skates.
Even tough the book was supposed to develop around the sibling's story in reality a great part of it describes the adventures of another group of boys.
In fact, almost half of this novel tells us about the trip that some of the boys from Hans and Gretel's town decide to take part in. The boys are leaded by Peter, who soon becomes another important character of the story, and they go on a trip that will take them and us on a journey across Holland.
I think that this part of the novel was crearly written with the intention of getting the reading to know more about Holland's history and culture.
While I first enjoyed this description of the country it slowly began to bore me after some time and I couldn't wait to go back to the siblings story.
In fact, I think that the author spent too much time in describing Holland's history and the country's folklore.
This turned the story to be kind boring from me.
Another thing that I didn't like about this book is the fact that Holland and its people are depicted so perfectly and as if they could only do righteous and admirable things. They are never described or shown in a bad light and everyone who seems a little bit selfish is immediately depicted as bad by the author.
I also didn't like the fact that all of the female characters of the novel are characterized only by their beauty, their grace, their kindness and so on...
They are never described to have other abilities or capabilities besides the ones that a classic housewife to-be would have.
Another thing that I absolutely didn't appreciate was the fact that the figure of the wife is always expected to follow her husband's wishes, to respect him and to provide him of everything he may want or desire...
While I understand that this book was written in the 18th century I still can't get myself to support a novel that contributes to diffuse this kind of patriarchal behevior and morals to children.
In the end, though, I have to say that I think this is a children's book mainly written with the intention of getting young people to know more about Holland and its cultures.
While the novel does a good job at that I didn't like the fact that its morals where so old minded (even if considering the period when the book was written).
This was a good read which I enjoyed but I don't know if I would recommend it to anyone unless they would like to get to know about Holland or they are simply looking for a children's book.
ellsworthinwonderland's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
calistareads's review
5.0
AS a child, I loved this book. I read it during the winter olympics. It just fascinated me. I reread it later in life and it's more of a learning book. It's not exciting really, but I would still recommend it
avonlea_booknerd's review
2.0
I'm sorry but I found this book extremely boring. Just not for me I guess.
juliavdelft's review against another edition
4.0
I listened to the audiobook for the most part, which was great, and then read the rest. You can tell it's a classic, written in the 1860s, and a lot different than kids' books nowadays. Worth reading, though. I was especially interested because of all the history she puts in there. It's not boring. Also the overall story is a happy one.
annegirl's review
3.0
I would rate some parts of their book lower and some higher but both my daughters rated it 3 or below so I am settling on 3.
aseleener's review
3.0
Read for my classic lit book club. Nice story. Weird how a lot of the names were German instead of Dutch.
elevetha's review against another edition
3.0
Holland. Winter. A skating competition. Brother and sister. Mystery. 8+. Enough said.
snowdrowsey's review
3.0
This book was an interesting read. I'd started long ago in the wintertime while living on Prairie St., but never could get much farther into it. The book starts out with Hans and his sister but then moves on to talk about a group of boys that Hans knows. The book follows their adventures while skating around on the frozen canals in Holland to travel all over to various cities in Holland and what happens to them on their trip. This was really weird since it had nothing to do with Hans or if he was mentioned he was a bit player in that part of the story. The last part of the book then focused on Hans and some about his sister. Everything turned out great for Hans, his sister, and their family and it was pretty unbelievable and shocking how it all got resolved.
libraryanned's review
2.0
Well, this book was pretty much what I expected so I shouldn't really complain. It is old and was written by someone in America who had only read a history book on the Netherlands (but she did visit after the book was published, to her credit). Basically it read like an old, cheesy Disney film like Pollyanna (in fact, not surprisingly,it was made into one), wherein the cheery, good people are rewarded and the nasty, mean people get their comeuppance. Plus a complete contrived plot. But again, I knew what I was getting into. Somehow, after the holidays ended and I was still reading this book, it ceased being charming. Not its fault. Mine.